


Under the rain

by Woodface



Category: Dragon Age II
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-21
Updated: 2014-05-21
Packaged: 2018-01-25 23:36:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1666637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Woodface/pseuds/Woodface
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She steals Hawke away from warm roaring fires and takes her to cool bedsheets.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Under the rain

**Author's Note:**

> This is for Elisabeth who gave me a LadyHawke/Isabela with as prompt "under the rain". Thank you for giving me some inspiration.
> 
> Big thanks to Emily for the beta.
> 
> I took some (a lot) of creative liberties with the timing of this to make it fit the story. I hope this can be forgiven.

Summer in Kirkwall is brown. It is dirt and sand sticking to your skin. It is heat that permeates your bones and makes your limbs heavy as lead. Summer in Kirkwall is silt baking for days in the sun, the smell sticking to your hair and following you inside every house. Summer in Kirkwall is heavy and damp. It is everything summer shouldn't be.

Isabela can hardly remember how summer is supposed to be when she seems to be breathing the city in and sweating it out again. It's been weeks of this and Isabela is quite done with it, thank you very much.

"I need your help."

Oh, all the comebacks she has for that on particular line. She's been saving them up, each one dirtier than the other just to see if she can get a blush from Hawke, but right now even the thought of sex is too exhausting. Who wants two naked, sweaty bodies rubbing together to create even more heat?

"It pays well."

Isabela can hear Hawke approach the bed when she doesn't respond and she makes a face at the ceiling. "Go away, Hawke. There was a reason I didn't answer when you knocked."

"Is it the same reason you've been holing up in here for days?" Hawke asks, leaning over her and glancing down with those annoying blue eyes. Eyes that right now remind Isabela of the cool blue oceans she'd rather be sailing than lying in her bed, feeling her body liquefy.

"Yes. Now go away," she sounds petulant and she doesn't care.

"You did hear me when I said that it pays well, right?" Hawke checks, tilting her head like she is that damn mabari hound.

"Yes, go ask Varric," Isabela rolls to her side, her back to Hawke.

"He's off on some errant," Hawke replies and Isabela can feel the bed dip as Hawke sits down beside her. The motion makes Isabela's hips slide towards Hawke and she makes a mewling sound as Hawke's rough clothes press against her bare back. She can feel the heat of Hawke's body through the fabric.

"Then ask Anders," Isabela wriggles irritably to get away, but her back brushes the sheath of Hawke's knife and the metal is miraculously cool, making Isabela purr as she rubs herself against Hawke's hip.

"He's swamped at the clinic," Hawke sighs and tugs at Isabela's breast band. "And before you ask, Merrill is off with Varric, Aveline has no time and Fenris is… brooding."

"Nice to know I'm at the top of your list, Hawke," Isabela can't help but feel a little insulted, even if that's probably irrational when she's trying to get rid of Hawke instead of encourage her.

"Considering the mood you've been in, can you be surprised?" Hawke asks, but she sounds amused and she nudges her hip against Isabela's back. "Come on. It will get us out of the city to where the trees are green and the air is… not as sweltering hot."

"You couldn't have said that first?" Isabela asks, sitting up in a fluid motion. The metal had been warming to her skin anyway.

She ends up changing her mind when Hawke has her climbing up mountains. She's just about to demand they turn back when the first drizzle falls from the sky. It is warm, but still refreshing and she tilts her head back, letting the rain fall down on her face.

"Merrill thought it might rain here. The mountains keep it from reaching the city."

Isabela hums and spreads her arms, inviting the rain to wash Kirkwall from her pores. When she looks at Hawke again, she sees an openness. She sees blue stretch out before her. She thinks she could sail there.

"You're right, this does pay well," she grins and she knows exactly how she looks as she moves over to Hawke, sliding her hands over her shoulders. She ignores the kindness and the quiet hope. She ignores the softness of Hawke's touch and she takes. She takes with her lips and her mouth. She takes with her hands, but gives only skin deep.

~~

Fall in Kirkwall brings relief. Fall turns brown into richness. It cools the foundations of the city, breathes fresh air down its streets and washes the silt away into the ocean. It brings Hawke to her doorstep, black hair plastered against her forehead, water dripping down her nose. She laughs and grabs Isabela's hands, drawing her out with her into the streets.

Isabela never liked fall. It's unpredictable and can turn a clear blue sea into rolling black. She's never thought of how refreshing it can be until she's standing in cool rain and feels like an entire season of sweat has been cleansed. It makes her shiver as the rain soaks through her clothes.

"Will you be less cranky now?" Hawke asks, stepping close and Isabela is happy to slide her arms around Hawke's neck. They're just the right heat now and she rubs herself up against the body she'd been so keen to keep away from her.

"It's a possibility," she threads her fingers through shining, wet tresses and tugs, pulling Hawke's head back. Her eyes are hungry and Isabela presses her mouth against Hawke's. She can taste the rain on her lips.

~~

Winter in Kirkwall is the smell of burning pine, damp cloaks and wet dog. It's still raining, but now the rain chills bones that are already cold as the city has long forgotten the heat of summer and everything is slick or frozen mud.

The winter brings shadows and Isabela takes to them naturally. Winter hides her, shields her while she sneaks her way through her life. She steals Hawke away from warm roaring fires and takes her to cool bedsheets. They make their own heat between them and Isabela soaks her up. She lets herself slumber, just for a moment at the time, but never too long.

"You don't have to go," Hawke murmurs as she wakes too soon one night. Isabela stiffens, but quickly pulls on her clothes and gets up from the bed.

"I know, pet," she tugs on her boots and turns around to grab her blades from the night stand. Hawke's eyes glitter in the dark, black as the ocean, able to swallow her whole and draw her down to their depths.

Hawke sighs and rolls to her stomach and Isabela remembers that she can, in fact, move now. She knows that she can't swim in these waters.

~~

Spring in Kirkwall starts with more rain. Isabela imagines that it won't last and the mud will dry up eventually, but she doesn't wait to find out. She leaves with the shadows under a cloak of rain, the stolen tome weighing heavy and digging in her side. 

The rain follows her for weeks, the clouds only parting when she's back on the sea. She watches the light play across the crystal blue water. It tugs and draws at her, calling her back across tides, but summer is next and she needs the ocean most. In these waters she can swim. In these waters she can drown and never lose herself.


End file.
